Yeah, MAX has been consistently great even after Ennis' departure. If you haven't read any other MAX arcs since Girls In White Dresses, I'd suggest checking out Welcome to the Bayou and Naked Kills. The only one I actually despised was Six Hours to Kill, because IMO it was boring and the art was horrible.

And for all the crap Frankencastle gets, I'd still suggest checking it out. It's a really fun arc and has a Hellboy feel to it. And like Shock said, new 616 is yet another fresh start.

What makes me love Rucka's series is the restraint he shows. Restraint is not usually the word people associate with the character but it actually works well. When the violence comes in, it's more effective. The violence is almost poetic, the blood artistic. And I also love the fact that we find out a lot about the character without him having inner monologue and him not speaking. He becomes more mysterious and bad a%# in my opinion.

Punisher 4 gets a 9.5/10 from me.

It didn't surprise me when the editor mentioned in a recent convention panel that a conscious goal of the new Punisher series was to remove the old "war journal" element and restore some of the character's mystique. So far it's working really well.

__________________
If you're just drop-dead gorgeous
You should just drop dead
-- April Smith and the Great Picture Show

Yeah, MAX has been consistently great even after Ennis' departure. If you haven't read any other MAX arcs since Girls In White Dresses, I'd suggest checking out Welcome to the Bayou and Naked Kills. The only one I actually despised was Six Hours to Kill, because IMO it was boring and the art was horrible.

And for all the crap Frankencastle gets, I'd still suggest checking it out. It's a really fun arc and has a Hellboy feel to it. And like Shock said, new 616 is yet another fresh start.

i read Welcome to the Bayou and it was funny as hell, i loved it. I havent read Naked Kills and Six Hours to Kill was whatever.

Well definatly hope that doesnt happen - Fox isnt my first choice and Im not sure about the cop by day angle but interesting news all the same. My brother keeps compairing Jack Baurer from 24 to the Punisher in later seasons which he seemed to enjoy so maybe...

A TV show seems like a good venue for the character. They've gotta give him more character than just the scary bogeyman who murders mob dudes, though. Maybe throw some victims into the mix that Frank has to protect now and then or keep Microchip around as a plucky sidekick or something. An hour of Frank shooting people in the face every week would get old real quick.

__________________
If you're just drop-dead gorgeous
You should just drop dead
-- April Smith and the Great Picture Show

I know everyone likes to hate on FOX (with good reason) but i think there's great potential in a Punisher tv show on there. This could end up being Fox's next '24'. A show about an anti-hero who spirals into darkness with lots of shooting, revenge, twists and turns. I'm actually all for this to happen.

Agreed. Also, i hear a lot of people complaining that they're tweaking the Punisher into a police officer. I dont get what the big deal is, because let's be brutally honest here, if they straight up adapted the current books, it'd be a horrible tv show. People aren't going to watch a show about a guy who just kills people mercilessly and has no character journey. The reason why so many people love Dexter is because even though he kills a ton of people, he's trying to get rid of his darkness and become normal. The punisher in the comics doesn't seem to give a s*** about any of that. The key to making this show work is going to be making the Punisher into a more likeable protagonist.

I don't speak for anyone but myself, but I think the problem lies in the keyword "moonlighting" in the article. They said he's a cop who moonlights as a vigilante, which adds some weirdness to the whole mythos for me.

As just a cop, I'd be rather fine with it, but that alter ego and balancing act is what I'm worried about, also Fox tends to kill off some of my favorite shows so I'm rather nervous.

haha - Corp at least your consistant! Yep in the Ultimate universe Frank was a cop. I dont have a problem with that, would like to have him keep his military background too though. Im interested in how this will develop: will Fanks family be killed before the show starts or will this happen as the show progresses? I know this will be different to how it is in the comics (adaptions always are) but I wouldn't mind Frank having a normal family life for most of the first season while moonlighting with the Punisher thing. Then when his family get killed then things would change. There are a bunch of options with this - could go anyway really, please let it be good. Who is going to be cast as Frank? Ray Stevenson, Thomas Jane, John Hamm or... suggestions? Interesting!

Beyond just being an Ultimate invention, I don't like the cop angle because it doesn't work metaphorically. Frank Castle loses everything and embarks on a war against crime. Soldiers fight wars, not cops. There's a very pointed difference between Frank's approach to crimefighting and a cop's approach to crimefighting. That's one of the major elements of the character--he adapts the brutal, lethal tactics of jungle warfare in Vietnam to the urban jungle of New York. A cop who already worked in New York turning his day job into a war on crime isn't as strong a symbolic basis. It's just a dude going off the deep end.

__________________
If you're just drop-dead gorgeous
You should just drop dead
-- April Smith and the Great Picture Show

i actually hope its like the 04 movie where he was a highly trained Marine with specializations in anti terrorism/black ops etc who is now an undercover agent.

if thats the case i can live with the show..it be cool to start the season with him on a mission and showing his life as an agent having a family, like in 04, and then they all get whacked on a mob hit from one of his missions.

I have read someone here talking about "Dexter"... It's different from Dexter because he kills 1 person at a time and in special ocasions 2. The Punisher kills multiple targets so the risks he takes by exposing his identity are huge if he is a cop of course. If they are thinking transforming Frank into the Punisher gradually as a consequence of some events in the series and at some point he quits by being a cop and he becomes the Punisher at 100% maybe this could work...